During this time of year, all the classic monsters enjoy their annual resurgence. Vampires rise from their coffins, mummies emerge from their tombs, and witches fly in on their brooms to stalk the world of the living via decorations and costumes. Many people also enjoy horror marathons of the old Universal monster movies.
Given the spirit of the season, I’ve decided to dig around for nine great Far Side comic strips featuring classic monsters. From vampire cows to witches getting cosmetic surgery, these panels feature those famous monsters presented through cartoonist Gary Larson’s famously twisted lens. While he didn’t reserve these comic strips to the spooky season during their original publication, Halloween is still the best time to experience Larson’s wild take on these horror classics.
Since this is Gary Larson we’re talking about here, it only makes sense to kick things off with a cow. Larson once explained his love for cows in a curious way. ''I've always thought the word cow was funny, and cows are sort of tragic figures,” he said. Over the years, his comics featured dinosaur cows and cannibal cows who eat hamburgers, so it’s only natural that vampire cows would appear too.
And since vampires are famously killed by a stake to the heart, so too would Gary Larson’s vampcow be taken down by a steak. In addition to stakes, vampires are no fans of daylight, as the legends generally say that it will kill them instantly. Whether or not a sun-lamp would do the same thing is questionable, but by the mischievous looks on the faces of the gift-givers in this comic, it seems like they’re hoping it will have a similarly devastating effect.
Vampires are usually depicted as the most seductive and sexual of the classic monsters, but Larson found a hilarious way to make a mummy alluring (or at least alluring to other mummies). The idea of a mummy stripper who unravels her wraps is truly inspired, though I wonder how the performance ends. Does she just fall into a pile of dust like so many mummies do in classic movies and cartoons?
Do the wraps just keep going endlessly? There are a lot of unanswered questions on this one. In this comic strip, two witches are gossiping about their neighbor's artificial enhancement.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
